Your Chance to Make California Even More Progressive

This is your chance to make California even more progressive. And the best part is that it’s grassroots Democracy at its finest. We all know that real change has to start on the ground level and work its way up and that’s what this is.

On Sunday there will be a vote for Democratic assembly district delegates for District 17. These are the people who represent Democrats as delegates to the California State Convention, which means they cast very important endorsement votes on critical issues. They’re like the national delegates that we heard so much about during the Presidential campaign, but on a State level.

District 17 is the eastern part of San Francisco and a wonderful assortment of activists have come together to form a very sharp and progressive slate. They are calling themselves the Reform Democrats District 17 and bill themselves as a “Coalition of local community advocates running to represent Assembly District 17 as delegates to the California Democratic Party and oppose Trump’s agenda.”

Not only do I support their goals, I’ve worked closely with at least half the people on the slate in my years of activism. These are the kinds of people we need helping make decisions for the State of California. They come from such backgrounds as Bay Area for Bernie, Jane Kim’s State Senate Campaign, The Harvey Milk Club, The Frisco 500, Hillary Ronen’s Supervisor Campaign, Preston Picus’ Campaign, The Latino Democratic Club, and a bunch of other progressive causes.

Anyways, here’s how you can help:

– Most importantly show up and vote for them. All you have to do is be a Democrat and go to Local 261 International Laborers Union Hall, at 3271 18th St., from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

– Pledge to show and volunteer to help out. You can learn more about doing that here.

Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

I've been called "an Underground legend": SF Chronicle , "an SF cult hero": SF Bay Guardian, and "the chief of cheap": Time Out New York, but to those familiar with my work, I'm just "that douchebag who writes books about cheap stuff and drinks a lot".

3 Comments

Simon Dogood

January 4, 2017 at 11:53 am

“Rent control is a disaster for all but the privileged minority who are protected by it. As much as any other single factor, rent control is responsible for the desperate housing crisis that has plagued NYC for the past 20 years. Like a lot of failed government programs, rent control grew out of a decent idea that ended up achieving exactly the opposite of its intended effect.” Donald Trump
Hopefully, his supreme court appointments will phase out or at least modify rent control. Rent control without means testing=corruption and full employment for lawyers.

Simon Dogood

January 6, 2017 at 11:21 am

It is disingenuous to cite only the poor and helpless cases of rent control abuse while at the same time ignoring the thousands of cases of long-term tenants that abuse the system. The whole system needs to be revamped to start all units on an equal footing; fairly appraise all units, reliably means test all recipients, and allow for genuine cost of living increases.
Forty years of this train wreck is enough either help to fix the underlying problem or let Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominees have the final say.

Simon Dogood

January 6, 2017 at 9:53 pm

The case of San Francisco, reported by Scott James in the New York Times (6.7.13) is even worse. Housing laws are so skewed in favor of the tenant that buildings sold without tenants are more valuable than those with units occupied. In other words, it is more economically advantageous for an owner to sit on empty apartments than to take the risk of renting to tenants who can never be evicted.
I’ve recently joined the ranks of San Francisco landlords who have decided that it’s better to keep an apartment empty than to lease it to tenants. Together, we have left vacant about 10,600 rental units. That’s about five percent of the city’s total — or enough space to house up to 30,000 people in a city that barely tops 800,000.
James and his partner had rented to a tenant who had appeared reasonable and responsible at signing, but who turned out volatile and destructive. Not able to get in to his apartment one night, he banged his way in with a sledge hammer, then had the chutzpah to say that it was OK, no harm done, for the law allowed him to destroy property as long as he ‘fixed it later’.
It is a widely held belief among renters here that laws are so tilted in favor of tenants (and against landlords) that renters can get away with any outrageous behavior. Indeed, in a city where 64 percent of residents are renters — and politicians court these voters — the rhetoric from some in City Hall and from tenants’ rights advocates is often vitriolic toward landlords.

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